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Hi,

I grew up in Coney Island in the '50s, so I’m no stranger to arcade machines. However, slots were illegal in New York City in those years, and I’m not really familiar with the specifications of the slots of the '30s. I live in Arizona now, just a few minutes from a number of casinos. Their “slots” are video, currency/voucher-driven machines that you can play for hours without getting your fingers dirty. Definitely not my idea of a slot machine and probably not your idea either. I'm writing a script and am seeking information on the coin capacity of a vintage slot such as a Mills Skyscraper. When the machine is totally filled to capacity (coin tube, cash box, jackpot), how many nickels will it hold? It’s great to be communicating with a knowledgeable bunch of people.

Please help.

I didn't find the right solution from the Internet.

References:-
http://www.coinopcollectorforum.com/vie ... f=6&t=3424
motion graphics video quote

Thanks!

Hi John and welcome to the site.

The Mills Silent Gooseneck (Skyscraper) is a moderately rare machine in the UK, so I'm not sure if anyone here can do that calculation - but no harm in asking.

The fellow behind the American coin-op forum you already tried (Dave) posted the video below, so if anyone knows, he does. The answers given by oldslotman sound pretty comprehensive to me. These are total number of coins held in reserve by the machine for paying out. He gives the dimensions of the cash box (which holds the coins which can't be retrieved by the player and which the operator will take to the bank) as '9 inches long and 6 inches wide and about 3 inches deep'. You'd need a few large bags of nickels to measure its capacity.

Dare I ask - why you need this rather specific, esoteric bit of information?

Also there are different sizes of jackpots on Mills machines, not just associated with size of coin, but to restrict for number of coins. The deeper ones obviously hold more. Some machines indicate number of coins given, eg 100 or 200. but the info given on other sight sounds about right.

Not sure cash box is relevant other than how often the operator took the coins out, rather than how busy a machine is. Also you could not calculate based on dimensions only as you would never fill the whole box in the real world as the coins would pyramid and overflow before filling..